Graves Found on Civil War Battlefield

Graves Found on Civil War Battlefield

Author Flint Whitlock says people are often surprised to learn the critical role Colorado played in the Civil War.

"Many of them have never even heard that Colorado was involved in the Civil War or that there were battles fought in New Mexico, and so once they learn about this it becomes very fascinating to them as it did to me as an author about 10 years ago when I first started doing research on this," Flintlock said.

Whitlock wrote a book called Distant Bugles, Distant Drums about the New Mexico Campaign. It included the Battle of Glorieta Pass in northern New Mexico. Volunteers from Colorado and a few regular Union soldiers stopped the South from invading the Colorado Territory and seizing the gold and silver fields.

Now, graves bellieved to belong to Union soldiers have been found on the battlefield. This comes right around the 150th anniversary of the battle. CPR’s Pat Mack talked with Whitlock and Adam Morgan, chairman of the Colorado Military History Center. Morgan explained how they went about finding these graves at Glorieta Pass.